Higher Cause
Mori Hosseini believes better universities build better economies.
Cy Cyr
Mori Hosseini CEO ICI Homes
Mori Hosseini, is a busy man with a full calendar. But don’t assume that it’s the business of home building that completely fills the ICI Homes CEO’s agenda. It’s just as likely that he’s blocked off time for community service. But to Hosseini, contributing to the community is good for business. He sees improving higher education as particularly valuable. “Higher education has always been my No. 1 charity that I pay the most attention to,” says Hosseini. “I feel that education is the fuel that fires the economy.”Hosseini has backed that belief by donating millions to educational causes, particularly his alma mater Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University based in Daytona Beach, Fla. He has given much over the years to the university. One building bears the ICI name and another will be named after Hosseini soon, says John P. Johnson, Ph.D., the university’s president.
“He has been very generous with both his resources as well as very generous with his time,” says Johnson. “The man is incredibly busy, [but] … I can always get him.”
Hosseini serves on the university’s board of trustees and chairs the university’s facilities and capital planning committee. “He has been very helpful to us in this period of growth and expansion,” Johnson says. “I can’t think of anybody who would be better at advising us than Mori Hosseini.”
Hosseini has donated to Daytona State College as well, where another building bears his name, the Mori Hosseini Center.
Courtesy ICI Homes
Teen Zone: Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist visits an ICI-sponsored after-school program.
Hosseini also serves on the Board of Governors overseeing all 11 Florida universities.
“We [the board] are very involved in setting up the future of the 400,000 kids that we educate every year in our state,” says Hosseini. “If you are able to make the smallest improvement, that by itself is a huge contribution to a community and you can be proud that you are able to help.”
But higher education is not Hosseini’s only community focus. “Mori Hosseini has done more to improve and sustain the justice system in our part of the state of Florida than any other individual,” says John Tanner, a former state attorney and prosecutor in Florida. Tanner says Hosseini served as an advisor to two Florida governors on the selection and appointment of judges.
Courtesy ICI Homes
Earth Day Tree ICI donates and helps plant a tree at a local elementary school.
In addition, Hosseini’s company contributes to dozens of other charities, including Habitat for Humanity, March of Dimes, and the American Cancer Society. ICI also matches employee contributions.“Even during ICI Homes’ leaner years, those of us working on the inside often observed Mori’s never-ending acts of kindness [often acting anonymously],” wrote ICI staff in nominating him for the Hearthstone Builder Humanitarian Award.
“We have managed in a much, much smaller way to contribute, giving more time [through volunteering] than money because of the current [economic] conditions,” Hosseini says. “Our company is not just about me. It’s about all of us in our company. Bottom to top our people are into charitable giving. You give and give and give until it hurts.”
